How Much Water is Normal for a Bunny to Drink?

[Mia]

We have three bunnies and they consume wildly different amounts of water. Our largest bunny, an older spayed female 7 lb lop named Hope, drinks about 40 oz a day, while our smaller 4 and 5 lb bunnies seem to barely drink at all.

They're all indoors with central air, same diet, etc., I would expect larger buns to drink more than smaller ones, but the difference here seems drastic. I am wondering if Hope has a health problem that makes her drink so much?

 

[Flashy]

Has she always drunk more?

It could be a health problem (be them kidney or bladder problems, or maybe she is drinking due to pain or something else), but equally it could be weather, or something else, or it could be completely normal for her.

My buns drink very differing amounts and they are roughly all a similar size. I also have one who drinks when she gets anxious and until recently, had another who would drink when she was hungry.

 

[Mia]

Yes, she has always drunk more than the others, but the amount seems to be increasing as time passes, too.

With the increased drinking comes increased peeing. Our routine has always been to dump the litter boxes twice a week and to change the aspen shavings in the cage as needed, since all the pee was in the litter box and they really didn't get very dirty. Now, the shavings are soaked within a few days of a change, and we are starting to have flies develop in the wet bedding.

Her cage is quite large and to replace all the bedding two or three times per week is adding up, as well as being an additional chore. I tried leaving her without bedding, thinking it would make it more clear that the whole cage isn't a litter box. That had no effect--she peed outside the box anyway and then sat around in the wet. Not good.

 

[Flashy]

Has she changed in any other way? Diet? Behaviour? Weight?

 

[Flashy]

Also, if you could put your country in your profile that would be great. Thanks

 

[Mia]

Thank you both. I am in the USA, I can't figure out how to get into my profile to add info.

Hope seems otherwise the same as always. About two months ago we decreased the amount of pellets and increased the amount of hay for all our buns because Silver, another spayed female, had packed on quite a bit of weight. But they weren't getting that many pellets even before we made that change--hay and veggies have always been their mainstays and we thought of pellets as dessert. Now they get dessert more like once a week rather than every other day or so.

 

[Flashy]

I wonder if the hay increase hay done it. Some bunnies need to drink more if they are eating more hay. Are they still getting the same veggies? Do you make sure the veggies are carefully balanced in terms of vits and minerals?

It might be worth getting her vet checked (maybe a blood test for the kidneys, and maybe the vet could check her teeth and bladder) to rule out a possible medical problem.

To add it to your profile, go to the bar at the top (just under the RO logo) where you see it says 'menu' and click that and select profile, then type it in and clear change, or whatever the option is at the bottom.

 

[Mia]

Thank you. I put my location in my profile.

I am now wondering whether Hope could be hungry despite all the hay she is getting, and maybe that is why she is drinking so much.

I am second-guessing my decision to increase hay and decrease pellets, which I will post in a new thread.

 

[jamesedwardwaller]

there are a variety of reasons for drinking more water,, very active,not necessarilly illness(but something to watch for).,if the ie..timothy/orchard grass has alot of dust/dirt in it,..keep an eye on the poop box,,give tummy rubs(see if it is soft like dough),/.i have a doe
(hymalayin) that drinks very little,.,she thinks she is a camel,.try some of that blue grass/rr,..sincerely james waller

 

[Pipp]

Mia wrote:

Thank you. I put my location in my profile.

I am now wondering whether Hope could be hungry despite all the hay she is getting, and maybe that is why she is drinking so much.

I am second-guessing my decision to increase hay and decrease pellets, which I will post in a new thread.

I'm not sure if there's a new thread on this but I will say that my bunnies drink almost directly proportioned to their hay intake. (I don't think I've ever seen my no-hay, near-exclusive-veggie-diet bun drink water).

Good idea to keep an eye on the kidneys with old buns. Excessive drinking I believe can indicate problems.

I'll add that old bunnies need more calories and protein (I think) to combat natural wasting, so if there's a way of feeding her separately from the others, great.

sas :bunnydance:

 

[Mia]

A follow up: As I posted in my other thread, I noticed Hope had lost some weight so I really started to worry the constant drinking was because of hunger.

Yesterday I started her back on pellets, and since she got them she has eaten much less hay, and she still has water in her bottle from yesterday. So, she's down from three bottles a day to less than one.

The increase in hay clearly didn't cause a huge increase in drinking in my two other bunnies, but for Hope, it looks like it did. She has a vet appt. Thursday to rule out any other problems that could be behind her weight loss, but I am hopeful at this moment that it was the switch away from pellets that caused both the weight loss and the increased water intake.

 

[Pipp]

Thanks for updating this thread.


sas :bunnydance: